As a direct aftermath of the 2011 general elections that exposed the widening political divide between northern Nigeria’s dominant tribe and its minorities, particularly Christian minorities, the Arewa Consultative Forum is now making frantic efforts to bridge the gaps.
The ACF has said it will give northern minorities the opportunity to put their social and political grievances on the table in a conference planned to take place on December 5, 2011, all in the hope of preserving peace and unity in the northern region.
Meanwhile a top northern leader, Abubakar Abdukadir,? who was part of the failed attempt to get former military president Ibrahim Babangida back to power at the 2011 election, has admitted that the minorities were in the past taken for granted.
An academic in the Department of Languages and Linguistics, University of Maiduguri, Prof, Adrew Haruna, who has lectured extensively on violence and conflict resolution has stated that the success of the conference will depend on the theme, the speakers and the scope of grievances to be tabled.
In a chat with LEADERSHIP SUNDAY yesterday, the spokesman of the ACF, Anthony Sani, said that minorities in the North may have their reasons for voting with the South in the last couple of elections but said that was not historically abnormal.
Sani pointed out that the minorities are not Hausa/Fulani and are mostly Christians, adding that the planned conference was an opportunity for them.
The conference, he said, was being called to address the issues of violence, ethno-religious crises, sectarian and communal clashes and even criminal violence which, he said, was new to northern Nigeria.
?“The representatives of the minorities will be at the conference. They will table their grievances and say why they vote with the South. But even in the time of Sardauna, Plateau went NDP, Kano voted PRP and even Borno has not always voted with the main party,” he said.
The ACF, he said, has always made attempts to mediate in ethno-religious crises in the region.
He said: “During the Tiv/Jukun crisis, ACF went there. In the Shendam crisis, we went there and resolved it. The crisis in Jos north, ACF went there twice; and we have gone to Borno.”
Abdulkadir, a former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance said: “The minorities are trying to push back the sense of guilt ,and say that your grandfathers and fathers oppressed us; therefore, now we do not feel that we need to follow you hook, line and sinker. But this is history.”
“We did take them for granted, but not anymore. Certainly, any honest thinking person will agree with me on this. One thing we did not do — we did not openly discriminate against the minorities.
“The minorities have this feeling that they were in the past oppressed, that they were deprived, and the dominant tribe looked down on them.”
The region must now move on, he said. “The way to forget the past is to put all our grievances on the table; these are what happened, these are what you are doing, let us see how we are going to solve them. Nobody has done that up till today, except accusations. It will not help anybody.”
Abdulkadir also said that the North has not always spoken with one voice: “But it has always been a sort of pillar of Nigeria’s unity. Both the southerners and the northerners, it is in their interest to see that the North, with good leadership, remains solid because, once that disappears, it will be worse than the security crisis we are seeing now.” ”For the sake of
Nigeria’s unity, the North must come together,” he said. Prof. Haruna, for his part said:” I am not a politician. As an academic, one must have proof, not just judgment, to explain the eruption.
There must be a catalogue of evidence to say that this is the problem. If it is just spontaneous, I do not think it will solve the problem; it will only exasperate it.”? He added: “Anything that will bring peace is good not only for the North but for the whole country. What I do not like is people pointing fingers. I have to look at my own problems and if that is done, then, I believe there can be dialogue.”